Canadian men, more than women, consider meat one of life’s greatest pleasures and older men in particular think nothing compares to a good steak, a new survey finds.

For beef farmers, that’s about where the good news ends.

According to a new survey on Canada’s “protein wars,” 6.4 million Canadians have already restricted or eliminated meat from their diets, while a third of the population intends to do so in the next six months.

But the survey paints a conflicting picture of our attachment to meat and willingness to embrace chickpeas over sirloin, with three-quarters strongly or somewhat agreeing that, “as humans, it is natural to eat meat” and that eating meat is part of “a natural and balanced diet.”

“It appears that Canadians are still somewhat attached to meat consumption, generally speaking,” said principal investigator Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University. “But more and more Canadians are reconsidering their relationship with animal-based protein,” he said.

The findings come as Health Canada prepares to debut the latest iteration of its food guide in November, one that had been expected to lean more vegan than omnivore. In its “guiding principles” for the food-rules rewrite released earlier this year, Health Canada urged a shift to a “high proportion” of plant-based foods, without necessarily excluding animal foods.

Canada’s dairy and meat industries have pushed back against any serious dumping of meat, milk or other radical changes, and it’s not clear whether Health Canada will wilt to pressure from that juggernaut. The meat industry says it has been assured by the government the food guide won’t go low-meat.

But other countries are trending in exactly that direction, helped along in part by a declaration by the World Health Organization’s cancer agency in 2015 that bacon, sausage and other processed meat is a carcinogen to humans, and red meat “probably” too, a proclamation that raised fresh criticism over how the WHO communicates risk — and uncertain science — to the public.

“People said, ‘how could you possibly put processed meat in the same category of asbestos’,” Charlebois said. “But since then you have seen several governments around the world adjusting their food guide and policy around meat consumption, and we are expecting (Canada’s) food guide to be way more plant-based friendly.”

More and more Canadians are reconsidering their relationship with animal-based protein

For the study, researchers surveyed 1,027 adults over three days in September. Charlebois conducted the study along with Simon Somogyi, of the University of Guelph and Janet Music of Dalhousie’s faculty of management. With a sample of this size, the margin of error is three per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Nearly half (49 per cent) of those surveyed said they consume meat or meat-containing products daily; 40 per cent said they eat meat once or twice a week. Two per cent considered themselves vegetarians, one percent vegans (no animal-based products, including honey) and one per cent lacto-ovo vegetarian (no animal flesh, but eggs and milk products permitted).

Fifty-one per cent said they would be willing to consider reducing meat some time in the future.

Both genders identified health benefits as reasons for doing so, though women and younger people were more concerned about animal welfare.

“The younger generation is not so interested in the health but the humanitarian approach to the way we’re feeding ourselves,” said renowned nutrition scientist Dr. David Jenkins of the University of Toronto. “You don’t mind a cow in the green field with the blue sky above and the tree and the sun — what every kindergarten kid draws,” he said.

“But when you come to a mechanized abattoir, that’s not such fun. There’s no blue sky, no happy, prancing (cattle). And I think that’s a big grassroots change among the young.”

Overall, the survey found that, “If you earn more, if you are a woman, if you are more educated, you are less likely to be attached to meat,” said Charlebois, who believes we’re experiencing “the womanization of protein consumption.”

He’s currently mentoring 10 plant-based food start-ups, from Montreal to Calgary. Women lead nine of them. “Last week in my MBA class I had Sobeys CEO (and president) Michael Medline and seven of his top executives. Three of them were women. The influence of women in the industry is becoming more and more apparent,” Charlebois said.

Canadians have reduced their meat intake since 2004. Today it is similar to that in Mediterranean countries, “places where diets are widely recognized as being amongst the healthiest worldwide,” said Marie-France Mackinnon, of the Canadian Meat Council.

Canadians consume, on average, 41 grams of cooked fresh meat like beef, pork, lamb or veal a day, she said — “that’s about half the size of the palm of your hand.”

“There’s been lots of speculation” about the new food guide, Mackinnon said. “In May, we met with the Health Minister (Ginette Petitpas Taylor) who assured us that they will not be telling (Canadians) to consume less red meat in the next edition.”

Jenkins, who is currently running a cross-Canada randomized trial testing whether a lacto-vegetarian diet can stop or even reverse plaque buildup on coronary arteries, said the science supports moving to more plant-based eating.

“No one has said ‘eat more beef and grow strong’, which is what they said in the 1930s,” he said. “No one is saying that anymore.”

Among the survey’s other findings:

• 63 per cent of vegans are under age 38 (millennials and Gen Ys);

• 42 per cent of “flexitarians” (flexible vegetarianism, with the odd serving of meat) are boomers;

• Younger and more educated are less likely to love meat;

• Few consider insects an appealing alternative to meat, although Atlantic Canadians and Quebecers seem more open to eating bugs.

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